HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Editorial Page of Home and Farm Magazine Section
Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Following the Trend of World News;
Suggestions of Interest to Readers; Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought.
4
TO ADVKRTISEHS.
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fully cover all sections of Oregou and Wash
ington and a portion of Idaho will apply to
local publishers for rates.
General advertisers may address C. L. Bur
ton, Advertising Manager of Oregon-Washlng-ton-ldaho
Farmer, Oreouian Building, Port
land, Oregou, for rules and Information.
TO RK.VDKRS.
Headers are requested to send letters and
articles for publication to The Editor, Or
egon Washington - Idaho Farmer, Oregonian
Uuilding, 1'ortland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions and problems
that bear directly on the agricultural, live
stick and poultry interests of the Northwest,
and on the uplift and comfort of the farm
home always arc welcomed. No letters treat
ing of religion, politics or the European war
re solicited, for the Oregon-Washington-Idaho
Farmer proclaims neutrality on these matters.
Comparatively brief contributions are pre
ferred to long ones. Send us also .photo
graphs of your livestock and farm scenes that
you think would be of general interest. We
wish to mrike this magazine of value to you.
Help us to it.
CHEERFULNESS.
SMILE a while, friend, smile. Tons of
advice have been ladled out on the
subject of cheerfulness, and if all the
precepts of good cheer had been followed
hi past days this world would be a mueh
brighter one in which to live. There is noth
ing which costs less and has more far-reaeh-ing
results than cheerfulness. It is an at
tribute that makes a person beloved among
his fellow-men.
The artificial cheerfulness born of a desire
to please and placate has no place in the
realm of joy. That it is forced is too obvious
and, far from having the effect desired, it
often breeds sneering cynicism in the ob
server. An idiotic grin can never take the
place of a warming smile.
Things will go wrong, it's true. It is hard
to be cheerful all the while, and often im
possible; but cheerfulness in the face of ad
versity wins the praise and admiration of
the world.
For the test of the heart Is trouble,
And it always comes with years,
And the smile that is worth the 'praise of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
A smile is not the vapid leer at a joke
that's "queer," but an expression of the best
in man. The most tender of human emotions
mother love finds expression in the smile
of the mother at the warm body clinging to
her breast. True happiness comes with a
smile. The riches of Midas cannot bring the
pleasure that lies in the smiles of a child.
Love and friendship thrive on smiles, with
out which neither could exist for long.
It's so easy to be cheerful, and what a
pleasant, friendly road is the path of life
when bordered by the smiles of those we
know and love.
WHERE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER.
PEOPLE who conduct business honestly
invariably suffer when dishonest peo
ple are allowed to ply their trade unmo
lested. Honest railroads have suffered be
- cause of the dishonest deals of other rail
roads. The time should be past for people to
condemn every railroad because of the
manipulation of certain railroads which
have watered their stocks to such an ex
tent that it seems impossible to make the
corporations show a profit. In recent years
there has been practically no stock-watering,
while most of it was done so long ago that
the statute of limitations no longer applies
and it certainly would he the eight million
bondholders in the United States who would
suffer should the Government attempt to
force the unwatering of the stock.
Most of the railroads have seen the error
of their way and are now hewing to the
line and making an honest effort to make
the railroads pay in spite of what has hap
pened in the past.
IlowarS Elliott, president of the New
Haven Railway, made the following state
ment :
We must give our railroads the highest charac
ter for honesty, ami In order to do this we must
be honest and sincere ourselves. And when I Bay
that, I don't mean oniy about money, but I mean
we must be honest ot purpose and honest of
statement and stamp out all evidences of fool
ishness in personal and railroad conduct, and
eliminate anything that looks suspicious in the af
fairs of great public service corporations.
Sometimes we are asked to go into politics, and,
as voti know, the railroads and business generally
have been charged with engaging too much in
politics and trying to manage politics. That day
has gone by.
It would certainly be a splendid thing
if every railroad would act in accordance
with the statement of Mr. Elliott. It would
not Only be much better for the railroads,
but it would be better for the public and
the country at large.
The rate increase allowed by the In
terstate Commerce Commission is based
on the belief, by men who ought to know,
that the railroads are entitled to a living
profit.
Since the progress and financial affairs
of this country depend so much on the rail
roads, it seems high time for everybody to
get busy and boost for prosperity.
BRITAIN'S NAVAL POSITION.
WINSTON CHURCHILL'S statement
of the British naval position, while,
of course, intended to reassure his
countrymen in the face of recent'losses, pre
sents certain non-controversial facts which
are too often forgotten in popular discus
sion. He has abandoned the bellicose tone
in which he promised that the British navy
would "go after the German ships and dig
them out of their holes." There will be noth
ing of that sort attempted as long as Britain
remembers the possibility of what naval de
feat must mean. The continental combatants
might lose their navies and remain strong,
but if England lost control of the seas il
would be fatal.
As Churchill says, the British, by the ne
cessity of their patrol duty, have been ex
posed to submarine attack and losses from
mines, while their enemy was beyond reach.
Answering the speculative inquiry whether
Germany cannot thus cut down the British
preponderance to where battle can be given
on nearly even terms, he says, somewhat
flamboyantly, that England can lose a bat
tleship a month for 12 months and still be as
much stronger as at the beginning of the
war.
This is based on a programme of complet
ing 15 new battleships within a year against
three by Germany. Two 25,000-ton battle
ships have been added since the war began,
and five 27,000-ton battleships are to be fin
ished within six months. Four light cruisers,
36 destroyers and a number of submarines
have already been added.
But whether Germany's building capacity
is limited, as Churchill avers, and whether
German submarines and mines and internal
accidents may not reduoo the British supe
riority much more than one battleship a
month, is a question.
At last we have an approximate idea of
the governmental expenditures in the Euro
pean war. Austria, England, France, Ger
many and Russia, to say nothing of Belgium,
Japan, Servia and Turkey, are spending
about $1,000,000,000 a month. This in a year
will aggregate about $12,000,000,000. The
five big belligerents have now shot away
between a fourth and a third of the value
of American railroads.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
TIIK other day 1 noticed him in the ele
vator a puny, undersized, ill-shaped
errand boy, says the editor of the
Prairie Farmer. His vacant eye and reced
ing chin showed that he was as lacking men
tally as he was physically. Evidently he was
hardly worth the meager three or four dol
lars a week that, he got as errand boy. What
will become of him as he grows older? Ila
will never be an asset to the community, but
always a liability, part of the increasing
dead weight that makes human progress
slow and toilsome.
You can find hundreds of boys and girls
like this in Chicago or any other large city,
and less frequently in the country. Any
stockman recognizes them as the result of
improper mating. He would not tolerate
such individuals among his livestock, for he
knows that the result would soon be an un
profitable lot of scrubs. He knows that he
cannot improve his stock unless, he prevents
the unfit from mat ing.
Is it not time that we seriously considered
applying the same methods to the human
family 1 The objection is at once raised that
such action would be against nature. But
we arc already far away from nature in our
treatment of defectives. Nature maintains
the vigor of primitive people by eliminating
the unfit. Only the strongest and most per
fect survive. Modern civilization, less cold
blooded than nature, protects and keeps alive
the people that nature allows to perish. This
is in accord with 'the highest dictates of
humanity.
But because we are more compassionate
than nature, can we afford to be less wisel
Can we afford to use weaklings and defec
tives as breeding stock? The proportion of
these is increasing will) alarming rapidity.
How long can civilization continue to pro
gress with a handicap like thist
WAIT FOR HER, BOYS!
(Editorial in Sheridan Or. Sun.)
THE girl who is unkind to her mother
isn't worth a tinker's dog-gone. This
isn't written in any part of the Bible,
but it's written in the history of thousands
and thousands of misfit homes. If one of
you boys ever run across a girl with her face
full of roses, with eyes that would dim the
luster of a Colorado sky and with a voice
that, would make the song of an angel seem
discordant, and she says, as she comes to the
door :
"I can't go for a few minutes; I've got
to help mother with the dishes." Don't give
her up. Stick to her like a burr to a mule's
tail. Just sit down on the doorstep and wait.
If she joins you in two or three minutes, so
much the better; but if you have to stay
there on the doorstep for half an hour, you
tjust wait for her. If you don't somebody
else will, and in time you'll be sorry. For
you'll realize what yon have lost.
Wait for her, boy. She's worth it.
After the war is over there ought to be
some profitable lead mining in some of the
European countries.
Andrew Carnegie ought to endow a regi
mont of soldiers to protect his peace palace.